1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an improved navigation device, particularly an optical navigation device such as a finger mouse which can be used to unlock a device such as a mobile phone.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Mobile phones are a common piece of equipment and are increasingly being used for identification for business transactions. However, they are vulnerable to theft, allowing for easy impersonation. Mobile phones include security systems such as passwords and personal identification numbers (PIN) to lock or access the phone itself or certain applications on the phone. Most of the commonly used security techniques and systems are often easily overcome. For example, passwords and PINs can be accessed by so called “shoulder-surfing”. Criminals use optical devices to watch users making transactions and then gain access to account details, passwords, PINs, etc. Alternatively in crowded places, criminals literally look over the shoulder of a user to determine certain information. Another problem with passwords is that their entry takes a significant amount of time as mobile phones lack a full sized keyboard.
The default distribution of the Android® operating system contains an option to set a pattern based lockscreen. A 3×3 grid of dots is presented which are connected by the user to form a continuous pattern, used in place of a PIN or password. This method however requires a touch screen for the pattern input and is extremely susceptible to the “shoulder surfing” techniques described above.
It is an object of the present disclosure to overcome at least some of the problems associated with the prior art.